JSPL prepays USD 106 million debt for Australian entity

Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) on Wednesday said that it has made a pre-payment of USD 106 million (about Rs 777.4 crore) to the lenders of its Australian entity.

Without sharing further details, the steelmaker said the prepayment has helped the company reduce the "Australian debt" by approximately 50 per cent.

In a statement, V R Sharma, Managing Director of JSPL said, "We are paying back to lenders before time in order to strengthen our balance sheet. The company is aligned with the India growth story and we want to become a net debt-free company by FY23 through accelerated deleveraging. We will expand our Steelmaking capacity in Angul to more than 12 MTPA by 2025 through internal accruals."

Further, JSPL in statement said, "In its endeavour to completely pay off its overseas debt, JSPL through its step-down subsidiary, Jindal Steel & Power (Australia) Pty Ltd, made a pre-payment of 105.66 million USD (approx.777.4 crores INR). The prepayment has helped reduce the Australian debt by approx. 50%. The company's Net Debt/EBITDA on a Consolidated basis was reported at 0.96x while Standalone Net Debt/EBITDA was approx. 0.7x as of June quarter which is expected to go down further this quarter."

"JSPL has been working with an undeviating focus on Net debt reduction of more than Rs.31,306 crores from a peak of approx. Rs.46,533 Cr in 3QFY17 to Rs.15,227 Cr as reported in Q1FY22. JSPL is also focussing on maintaining minimum levels of liquidity on its balance sheet at all times," it added.

( With inputs from ANI )